


Have We Met Before?

by returntosaturn



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Book Signing, F/M, Long Distance Relationship, auror!Tina, cute fluff, flourish & blotts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 20:18:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11320947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/returntosaturn/pseuds/returntosaturn
Summary: Eyes wide, he tipped his chin up to smile with quizzical affection at the book’s owner. The long-quieted feeling of Flitterbys dancing in his stomach alighted once more at the sight of her. He made to speak, to ask what on Earth she was doing in London with no prior notice of her arrival, but she was first.“Hello,” she said, tucking a lock of chestnut-colored hair behind her ear, working at swallowing down her own, playful smile. “I’ve come quite a long way to meet you…” she murmured, teasing, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth to fight at the threat of a giggle.“Ah,” he managed after a moment, catching onto the game. “Indeed you have.”





	Have We Met Before?

_ Flourish & Blott’s, 1929 _

 

Never before had there been an actual  _ queue  _ of people waiting for his signature. The sight of it was equal parts astonishing and altogether depleting. It couldn’t be said as to what had induced this many people to the debut of his third edition. It was a wholly unremarkable number, not bearing the accolade of a fifth nor the triumph of a tenth, and included only two new entries on beasts he’d discovered on his recent tour through Peru.

He had only agreed to sit for an hour, and had dared to bargain for less, even at the chagrin of his publisher. He’d tried to explain time and again that this was not his forte. Leave him to the edges of the farthest jungle, and he would thrive for weeks. Leave him with a pot of fresh ink and a cup of tea and he’d have a chapter and a half finished by midnight. But ask him to speak about  _ himself  _ of all things and sit helpless while people revolved through with pleasantries and sterile small-talk...he’d need a full week to recover.

He wasn’t even afforded a few minutes to speak on the newly discovered beasts, as he would’ve happily done, due to the unexpected turnout. He was merely plunked at a table, equipped with a quill, and asked to associate with the strangest, most foreign subset of humans he’d ever encountered: his readership. They were made up of housewives looking to rid themselves of a pesky ghoul, farmers searching for harmless pesticides, or professors from the world over who wanted to add a signed copy of his book to their library. Even so, he nodded through praises and stammered through diplomatic dismissals of questions about how to oust a garden of pesky infestations of gnomes or rid the rafters of doxies.

Well beyond the limits of an hour, the line had thinned but not slowed. His hand cramped around the quill, and he was certain he’d be able to sign his name in his sleep by now. Certainly he’d never dream of being impolite to those who invested in his work, who freely chose to read and learn, for what was the use of publishing a book if it was not read? This had been his goal all along: to educate. But as was his worry at any such event, he feared they’d be put off by the odd man they found behind the pen, who accepted their compliments with a bemused blush and a timid duck of his chin.

When the last in line had finally reached the table, he gave a half-cheerful hello and lifted his quill, but stopped short.

This book set before him was indeed a very familiar one, not only because he’d authored it, and not because he’d seen nothing but a sea of identical copies over the past hour. In fact, this was not a third edition at all. It was a first, embossed with gold and covered in red, not blue. Well cared for and yet undoubtedly read many times over. It was not only the book that was familiar, but the hands that held it, slender and long-fingered, ridged with a thin map of veins he knew like his own.

Eyes wide, he tipped his chin up to smile with quizzical affection at the book’s owner. The long-quieted feeling of Flitterbys dancing in his stomach alighted once more at the sight of her. He made to speak, to ask what on Earth she was doing in London with no prior notice of her arrival, but she was first.

“Hello,” she said, tucking a lock of chestnut-colored hair behind her ear, working at swallowing down her own, playful smile. “I’ve come quite a long way to meet you…” she murmured, teasing, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth to fight at the threat of a giggle.

“Ah,” he managed after a moment, catching onto the game. “Indeed you have.” He let himself marvel at her a moment more, watching her lashes brush at her cheeks, reminiscing on the precise color of her eyes not easily forgotten, even after all this time. “But you see…”

He flipped open the cover of her book to the title page, where a handwritten message was scrawled below the ordinary serifed type.

“This copy has been signed already. And with  _ ‘deepest affections’ _ no less.” He pointed.

“Oh, would you look at that.” She gave an exaggerated gasp, picking up the book and cradling its spine carefully in one hand. “For Tina…” she read, “...signed  _ Newt Scamander.  _ Well that  _ is _ strange. Have we met before?” she asked, using her best detective’s voice.

He flushed for a moment, expecting her to read the entirety of the inscription, entirely relieved when she did not. He couldn’t bear such intimate words being read aloud, even if no one in the bustle of the bookshop was near enough to listen.

“So it would seem,” he said, ears gone pink.

“But see this date, here? Twenty-sixth June, nineteen-twenty-seven. That’s a year ago today, if I’m right.” She quirked an eyebrow.

He set aside his quill and twined his fingers, businesslike, before him. “You are correct.”

“A whole year’s time. Imagine that. A woman given the  _ ‘deepest affections’  _ of one Newt Scamander, and then left to her lonesome for an entire year.” She tried her best at looking put out, wrinkling her nose in such a way that he could not consider it anything other than charming.

“Well…” he swallowed, peering up at her from beneath untidy fringe. “There were letters,” he defended, giving a cheeky grin.

“Yes,” she agreed, thin lips bowing into an honest, almost girlish smile against her better efforts. “Wonderful letters.” She folded the book closed, holding it reverently in both hands.

He could only smile in kind. “Wonderful letters, indeed.”

Her cheeks pinked, but only for a second before she set her stance, slipping back into character once more. “But I’ve come to London on business, and unfortunately my time is short. What do you suggest two long-separated people, both sharing  _ deepest affections, _ do to reacquaint themselves after a year apart? Dinner, perhaps?”

“Dinner sounds lovely,” he answered. “Only if it is followed by coffee.”

She pretended to consider, lifting her chin and pursing her lips. “Hm. Fine. But only if coffee is followed by a tour of the city. It's my first time outside of New York City, ya know,” she admitted cooly.

“Ah, I see. I’d be delighted to show you about, Miss. If you’ll just allow me to gather my things...”

He stood with a flourish, plucking his ever-present, battered brown case from the spot under his chair.

With a quick nod to his publisher and a meager attempt to hide his giddy smile, Newt offered his arm like a gentleman, and Tina took it with quiet thanks.

“I’m very happy to see you, my dear,” he murmured, low and near her ear, breaking their facade without further fanfare once they were outside the confines of the bookshop and into the stifling heat and narrow scrawl of Diagon Alley’s cobbled streets.

“And I’m starving,” she replied curtly, earning a laugh and leaning up on tip-toe to peck his cheek before he led them both into the crush.

**Author's Note:**

> A "loose" fill for the prompt posted by [Fantastic Prompts](http://fantasticprompts.tumblr.com) for HP's 20th Anniversary. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> [allscissorsallpaper](http://allscissorsallpaper.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


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